Worldcat.org traffic partner writecite.com helps students save time on bibliographies

WriteCite.com is an Australia-based site that helps undergraduate and upper secondary high school students create automatic citations online. It was founded by a university lecturer in response to the growth of Internet-enabled and nontraditional information sources that still require referencing by today's students. Started in 2009, the site provides citations in APA, Harvard and MLA styles and features a free mobile version, iCite APA, that is available for Apple iOS and Android devices.

WriteCite provides a way to search the world's library collections via WorldCat, made possible through the OCLC WorldShare Platform. The WorldShare Platform gives flexible, open access to library data through APIs and Web Services, so that students can discover, cite and create lists for information in e-books, books, chapters, magazines, newspapers, websites, journals, films and more.

"Since we've implemented the WorldCat search and ability to find a local library," says founder and owner Michael Hargreaves, "we've seen a big increase in the amount of time people stay on the site. Our partnership with OCLC to include WorldCat searching and library-find has increased the functionality of the site. Our users benefit from the cooperative efforts of Australian and the world's libraries. And universities benefit from better-formed citations."

WriteCite.com is free for educational use and has been designed so that the form, search and preview panels can be "white label" implemented into a learning library's Web page without the WriteCite logo.

"We're so pleased that an Australian-based company can assist students worldwide," explains Chris Thewlis, Regional Manager for OCLC's Australian office. "With the WorldShare Platform now in place, it opens up additional partnership opportunities for locally created apps that help increase library visibility anywhere users are looking for quality, vetted information."

WriteCite.com offers the ability to cite books, advertising creative, electronic information, Internet resources, journals and reference materials. It is unique in online citation services, in that users view the citation format as they enter their information, so they learn how to reference materials as they go. It is available for both individual and institutional subscriptions and continues to be developed in Brisbane, Australia.

WriteCite.com is one of several automated citation applications that include library data from WorldCat, including EasyBib, BibMe and Citavi. There is also built-in functionality available on WorldCat.org that exports to popular citation software packages such as RefWorks, EndNote and EasyBib.

The WorldShare Platfom APIs are available to anyone interested in creating websites, mash-ups or mobile apps that include library data. An OCLC office in Melbourne supports Australia-based third-party sites like WriteCite.com to find worldwide scale through commercial partnership arrangements.